When the Air Force Academy’s starting quarterback, Donald Hammond III, was helped off the field and out of the game in the first quarter with an apparent right (throwing) shoulder injury Saturday night, the Falcons faithful cringed.

But it was the University of Hawaii that felt the pain, again.

For the second consecutive week the Warriors knocked an opposing quarterback out of the game early on and, once again, it was the backups who came off the bench that ended up flooring UH. This time, it was the Falcons who took it to UH through the air and on the ground, 56-26.

>> Click here to see photos of the game between Hawaii and Air Force.

Never mind that Hammond’s replacement with 7 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in the first quarter, was a third-string senior who had not authored a pass in his Air Force career and had just three career carries in three-plus years. For three-plus quarters, Mike Schmidt gave a Heisman Trophy candidate-like performance, completing five of six passes for 147 yards and a touchdown and running 14 times for 120 yards and three scores.

The management major from Fletcher, N.C., impeccably managed an offense that purred, piling up 522 yards without a turnover.

But, then, these last two weeks it seems like anybody who has picked up a football for the opposition has had a Midas touch as the Warriors, who yielded four combined TDs to Boise State’s second- and third-team quarterbacks, have been torched for 115 points in two games.

That’s the most points UH has surrendered in back-to-back games since Norm Chow’s inaugural 2012 season, when Nevada and Brigham Young combined to put up 116 points in 69-24 and 47-0 blowouts.

The Rainbows, who are suddenly reeling at 4-3 after a 4-1 start, are also 1-2 in the Mountain West Conference and are in danger of falling out of the West Division race before they were ever in it.

The Falcons (5-2, 3-1), who scored on eight of 10 possessions before taking a knee to end the game, so thoroughly cleaned out the Warriors that they didn’t bother to claim the Gen. Laurence Kuter Trophy until 45 minutes after the game had ended on their way to the buses and the airport.

All in all it was a night that left the assembled 20,217, the smallest home crowd of the season, shaking their heads on the way to the Aloha Stadium exits.

I mean, if you’d told somebody before the game that Cole McDonald would complete a career-high-tying 34 passes (out of 52) attempts for 404 yards and three touchdowns, you‘d figure UH would have won the game even with two late turnovers, not gone down to an ignominious 30-point defeat.

But it was the Falcons who seemingly moved the ball with the greatest of ease, going 75 yards or more on six of their seven touchdown drives, and made the key defensive plays (four sacks and six tackles for loss).

The one score that the UH defense did not give up pretty much summed up the Rainbows’ abundant frustrations on this humid night.

McDonald’s pass was broken up by safety Grant Theil, with the ball bouncing off his thigh and foot only to be corralled by cornerback Milton Buggs, who returned it 92 yards for a touchdown.

The bizarre play, with 4 minutes, 1 second remaining, made for fitting punctuation for this one.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.